Squawker® Completes Launch of Equity Finance Platform with 6 of the World’s largest 10 Global Investment Banks Live

London (UK) – 19 April 2017 – Squawker®, the platform for sophisticated trading communities to execute hedging and capital optimisation transactions on-exchange, today announced the successful completion of the launch phase of its Equity Finance platform, with 6 out of the top 10 global investment banks live, and announced Ian Axe and Derek Bandeen as two new members to its Advisory Board.

Chris Gregory, CEO and co-founder, Squawker, comments: “The European Equity Finance market is currently estimated to trade over €2.5 trillion per annum. With six of the top ten banks live and trading through Squawker, we are already seeing some significant trading traffic over the platform. With a further three of the top ten banks close to completing their deployment projects, Squawker has worked hard to provide the essential support that the Equity Finance community has asked us for.”

The announcement marks a significant shift for Squawker, the facilitator of hedging and capital optimisation transactions. Designed and developed in partnership with the world’s leading investment banks, Squawker’s new platform provides a central hub for the European Equity Finance community to bring the execution of equity hedge trades on-exchange. The solution provides Equity Finance traders with settlement against the three largest equity CCPs and facilitating compliance with their trade reporting, MiFID II and MiFIR regulatory requirements. In addition, Squawker’s solution overcomes several key operational issues that currently restrict and limit trading in certain markets, such as automatic registration of share ownership in Spain.

Ian Axe, the recently-designated CEO of Panmure Gordon, former chief executive of LCH.Clearnet, and previously global head of operations and COO for EMEA at Barclays Capital, and Derek Bandeen, former Global Head of Equities at Citigroup join Squawker’s advisory board.

Ian Axe comments: “The top-tier investment banks are under increasing regulatory pressure for on-exchange transparency and central clearing counterparty (CCP) cleared models across their operations. They are all seeking to implement Straight-Through Processing for Equity Finance to replace the traditional OTC process.”

Derek Bandeen adds: “Squawker’s platform enables the large Equity Finance players to bring their execution of equity hedge trades on-exchange and provides a structure for them to manage their counterparty risk with Central Counterparty clearing.”

London (UK) – 15 July 2014 – Squawker®, the power behind the world’s only toxic-free, negotiated trading platforums and facilitator of compliant, algo-free trading communities, today launched its Program Trading and Fidessa modules for its Cash Equities trading community of more than 95 sell-side firms, and announced further improvements to the platform’s performance and stability. The new trading modules have been developed to meet the specific requests of Program Traders and Fidessa users respectively, streamlining negotiated trading with the trader’s algorithmic workflow and bringing OTC negotiated workflow into the trader’s automated algorithmic workflow, via Fidessa Spotlight.

Chris Gregory, CEO and co-founder, Squawker, comments: “Squawker’s Program Trading module enables traders to simply copy and paste programs direct into Squawker making it easy to input lists of orders. Squawker has the artificial intelligence to match the details of each instruction into its workflow, so that traders can Squawk orders which are difficult to execute over the order books or dark pools.

Users can also edit the visibility of their baskets, dark or lit, within Squawker by a simple right-click.”

Fidessa users now have direct connectivity with Squawker via their Spotlight workflow. Gregory continues: “Spotlight is the algorithmic automation system in Fidessa. It automates the sending of orders to multiple venues. The main ways of doing it in Spotlight are Ping and Spray. Spray is where an order is automatically cut up into smaller pieces and those smaller pieces are sent out to multiple venues in parallel. A Ping order, however, is sent to a single destination where it executes as much as is available, before moving onto the next venue and so on.”

Fidessa has enabled its customers to include Squawker in those destinations that receive FIX orders from Spotlight. Gregory adds: “On our side, we’ve enhanced Squawker’s intelligent memory functionality so that Spotlight orders are remembered within Squawker to dovetail Squawker’s workflow with that of Spotlight’s. For example, a trader’s Ping order to a dark pool stipulates that if a match is found, it should execute automatically, or the order should be cancelled. Within Squawker, nothing automatically executes. So when Squawker receives a Ping order, it remembers what you’re interested in trading, goes on to look for the other side for you and then links Squawker’s workflow to Spotlight’s workflow to eliminate the risk of over-trading when executing a block on Squawker.”

In addition, Fidessa’s connectivity with Squawker allows firms that send out natural Indications of Interest (IOIs) to the market to include Squawker in their recipient list. Squawker always maintains its human, algo-free nature, but Fidessa’s addition of Squawker to its destination list enables those IOIs to become actionable at the trader’s discretion. This streamlined integration makes it easier than ever before for traders to execute blocks off the back of their IOIs.

Further enhancements to Squawker’s platform include:

Enhanced Pop-up Alerts:
As users increasingly use ‘Dark’ interests to hide their side and price, the Pop-Up Alerts have been enhanced to fully support Dark interests;

Counter-proposals in Negotiations: Users can now decline and counter propose price and quantity in a single step;

Fidessa Network of Sell-side Firms Equipped to Route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades Direct from their Trade Blotter to Squawker at Go-live

London (UK) – 17 December 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced that Fidessa group plc (LSE: FDSA), provider of high-performance trading, investment management and information solutions for the world’s financial community, has completed the pan-European FIX integration from Fidessa’s OMS to Squawker. The deep systems integration will ensure that users of the Fidessa European Trading Platform (ETP) will be able to route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades to Squawker direct from their OMS, when the new block trading venue goes-live in the first quarter of 2013.

Chris Gregory, CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker matches trading counterparts, enabling them to build block volumes together, according to their different types of interests. Those interests can be expressed by users from their OMS using orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades. From day-one when Squawker goes-live, Fidessa’s ETP users will be able to access the liquidity on Squawker, in the same way that they can access all of the world’s other major trading venues.”

Gregory continues: “The challenge of finding block interest needs to be resolved and we are seeing significant appetite to Squawker playing a key role in solving this challenge. Fidessa has now completed the Fidessa ETP FIX connectivity and deep integration with Squawker which will enable its clients to have easy access to this new source of liquidity. The deep integration will allow ETP users to automate this process even further by easily configuring their Fidessa OMS to automatically route IOIs to Squawker the instant they receive a block order onto their OMS blotter.”

Squawker is in discussions with the full range of sell-side firms, including investment banks, market makers, agency brokers, proprietary and principal trading firms.

Fidessa Network of Sell-side Firms Equipped to Route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades Direct from their Trade Blotter to Squawker at Go-live

London (UK) – 17 December 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced that Fidessa group plc (LSE: FDSA), provider of high-performance trading, investment management and information solutions for the world’s financial community, has completed the pan-European FIX integration from Fidessa’s OMS to Squawker. The deep systems integration will ensure that users of the Fidessa European Trading Platform (ETP) will be able to route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades to Squawker direct from their OMS, when the new block trading venue goes-live in the first quarter of 2013.

Chris Gregory, CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker matches trading counterparts, enabling them to build block volumes together, according to their different types of interests. Those interests can be expressed by users from their OMS using orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades. From day-one when Squawker goes-live, Fidessa’s ETP users will be able to access the liquidity on Squawker, in the same way that they can access all of the world’s other major trading venues.”

Gregory continues: “The challenge of finding block interest needs to be resolved and we are seeing significant appetite to Squawker playing a key role in solving this challenge. Fidessa has now completed the Fidessa ETP FIX connectivity and deep integration with Squawker which will enable its clients to have easy access to this new source of liquidity. The deep integration will allow ETP users to automate this process even further by easily configuring their Fidessa OMS to automatically route IOIs to Squawker the instant they receive a block order onto their OMS blotter.”

Squawker is in discussions with the full range of sell-side firms, including investment banks, market makers, agency brokers, proprietary and principal trading firms.

Fidessa Network of Sell-side Firms Equipped to Route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades Direct from their Trade Blotter to Squawker at Go-live

London (UK) – 17 December 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced that Fidessa group plc (LSE: FDSA), provider of high-performance trading, investment management and information solutions for the world’s financial community, has completed the pan-European FIX integration from Fidessa’s OMS to Squawker. The deep systems integration will ensure that users of the Fidessa European Trading Platform (ETP) will be able to route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades to Squawker direct from their OMS, when the new block trading venue goes-live in the first quarter of 2013.

Chris Gregory, CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker matches trading counterparts, enabling them to build block volumes together, according to their different types of interests. Those interests can be expressed by users from their OMS using orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades. From day-one when Squawker goes-live, Fidessa’s ETP users will be able to access the liquidity on Squawker, in the same way that they can access all of the world’s other major trading venues.”

Gregory continues: “The challenge of finding block interest needs to be resolved and we are seeing significant appetite to Squawker playing a key role in solving this challenge. Fidessa has now completed the Fidessa ETP FIX connectivity and deep integration with Squawker which will enable its clients to have easy access to this new source of liquidity. The deep integration will allow ETP users to automate this process even further by easily configuring their Fidessa OMS to automatically route IOIs to Squawker the instant they receive a block order onto their OMS blotter.”

Squawker is in discussions with the full range of sell-side firms, including investment banks, market makers, agency brokers, proprietary and principal trading firms.

Fidessa Network of Sell-side Firms Equipped to Route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades Direct from their Trade Blotter to Squawker at Go-live

London (UK) – 17 December 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced that Fidessa group plc (LSE: FDSA), provider of high-performance trading, investment management and information solutions for the world’s financial community, has completed the pan-European FIX integration from Fidessa’s OMS to Squawker. The deep systems integration will ensure that users of the Fidessa European Trading Platform (ETP) will be able to route Orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades to Squawker direct from their OMS, when the new block trading venue goes-live in the first quarter of 2013.

Chris Gregory, CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker matches trading counterparts, enabling them to build block volumes together, according to their different types of interests. Those interests can be expressed by users from their OMS using orders, IOIs and Advertised Trades. From day-one when Squawker goes-live, Fidessa’s ETP users will be able to access the liquidity on Squawker, in the same way that they can access all of the world’s other major trading venues.”

Gregory continues: “The challenge of finding block interest needs to be resolved and we are seeing significant appetite to Squawker playing a key role in solving this challenge. Fidessa has now completed the Fidessa ETP FIX connectivity and deep integration with Squawker which will enable its clients to have easy access to this new source of liquidity. The deep integration will allow ETP users to automate this process even further by easily configuring their Fidessa OMS to automatically route IOIs to Squawker the instant they receive a block order onto their OMS blotter.”

Squawker is in discussions with the full range of sell-side firms, including investment banks, market makers, agency brokers, proprietary and principal trading firms.

Squawker® and SIX Financial Information Form Partnership

London (UK) – Monday 21 January 2013 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, and SIX Financial Information, today announced the signing of a new partnership. According to the agreement, SIX Financial Information will supply Squawker with real-time, pan-European market data via its flagship product Market Data Feed (MDF) allowing Squawker participants to execute pan-European block trades always at consolidated mid-price and consolidated VWAP. The announcement, which comes shortly after news of Squawker’s addition to the BT Radianz Cloud, underlines the new venue’s commitment to building solid relationships with robust, quality and trusted financial services providers.

From the venue’s go-live, scheduled for March 2013, Squawker will use SIX Financial Information’s pan-European data to populate its entire suite of instrument masters. Real-time data will enable Squawker to calculate consolidated mid-price and end-of-day consolidated VWAP prices. It will drive fat-finger checks and deliver data relating to exchange open/closing changes, as well as trading halts and resumptions information.

Christopher Gregory, co-founder and CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker’s collaboration with SIX Financial Information is crucial to the venue’s success. Using SIX Financial Information’s data via the Squawker platform, Squawker’s sell-side trading participants of mid-price interest will always execute at the consolidated mid-price of Europe’s national exchanges and major MTFs. Similarly, VWAP-interested participants will be able to agree a block trade at any point throughout the day that is guaranteed to execute at the day’s consolidated VWAP price.”

Martin Cole, Managing Director, SIX Financial Information UK Ltd, comments: “Squawker has the potential to redefine the way the market trades block sizes. No longer will firms need to slice up their large trade sizes and drip them slowly into the market over a period of time, risking impact cost or the unwanted attention from detrimental algorithmic flow. SIX Financial Information’s high quality and comprehensive coverage coupled with its real-time data availability delivers upon Squawker’s sell-side trading community data reliability requirements.”

MDF is a high performance, real-time global market data service delivering consolidated market information from exchanges, multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and institutional contributors. MDF is particularly well suited for feeding applications which demand mid to high range data throughput.

London (UK) – 12 November 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced it has entered into an agreement with BT in which BT Radianz services will be used to host and manage Squawker’s technology infrastructure, and provide brokers with access to Squawker, the world’s first toxic-free* electronic trading venue. Members of the BT Radianz Cloud – the world’s largest secure networked financial community – will have easy access to Squawker’s secure, anonymous forum where they can find liquidity and personally interact, negotiate and build on block trades with their trading counterparts.

Robin Farnan, MD BT Radianz Services and BT Unified Trading, BT, comments: “BT is absolutely committed to providing the highest quality of managed services, with all the stability, fault-tolerance, disaster recovery and continuity that is expected and required for today’s trading venues. The BT Radianz Cloud is rapidly becoming the industry standard, linking together the world’s major trading venues and financial institutions, and as such Squawker is an important addition to our cloud community.”

Christopher Gregory, co-founder and CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker will provide a new solution to the block trading challenge that the industry has been grappling with for a while. By collaborating with BT, we are able to ensure the highest-quality trading venue for our global clients, with easy access to our services via a proven, trusted and established provider.”

Squawker is currently in its production environment implementation phase and is due to go-live in the first quarter of 2013.

London (UK) – 12 November 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced it has entered into an agreement with BT in which BT Radianz services will be used to host and manage Squawker’s technology infrastructure, and provide brokers with access to Squawker, the world’s first toxic-free* electronic trading venue. Members of the BT Radianz Cloud – the world’s largest secure networked financial community – will have easy access to Squawker’s secure, anonymous forum where they can find liquidity and personally interact, negotiate and build on block trades with their trading counterparts.

Robin Farnan, MD BT Radianz Services and BT Unified Trading, BT, comments: “BT is absolutely committed to providing the highest quality of managed services, with all the stability, fault-tolerance, disaster recovery and continuity that is expected and required for today’s trading venues. The BT Radianz Cloud is rapidly becoming the industry standard, linking together the world’s major trading venues and financial institutions, and as such Squawker is an important addition to our cloud community.”

Christopher Gregory, co-founder and CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker will provide a new solution to the block trading challenge that the industry has been grappling with for a while. By collaborating with BT, we are able to ensure the highest-quality trading venue for our global clients, with easy access to our services via a proven, trusted and established provider.”

Squawker is currently in its production environment implementation phase and is due to go-live in the first quarter of 2013.

London (UK) – 12 November 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced it has entered into an agreement with BT in which BT Radianz services will be used to host and manage Squawker’s technology infrastructure, and provide brokers with access to Squawker, the world’s first toxic-free* electronic trading venue. Members of the BT Radianz Cloud – the world’s largest secure networked financial community – will have easy access to Squawker’s secure, anonymous forum where they can find liquidity and personally interact, negotiate and build on block trades with their trading counterparts.

Robin Farnan, MD BT Radianz Services and BT Unified Trading, BT, comments: “BT is absolutely committed to providing the highest quality of managed services, with all the stability, fault-tolerance, disaster recovery and continuity that is expected and required for today’s trading venues. The BT Radianz Cloud is rapidly becoming the industry standard, linking together the world’s major trading venues and financial institutions, and as such Squawker is an important addition to our cloud community.”

Christopher Gregory, co-founder and CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker will provide a new solution to the block trading challenge that the industry has been grappling with for a while. By collaborating with BT, we are able to ensure the highest-quality trading venue for our global clients, with easy access to our services via a proven, trusted and established provider.”

Squawker is currently in its production environment implementation phase and is due to go-live in the first quarter of 2013.

London (UK) – 12 November 2012 – Squawker®, the negotiation venue for sell-side block trading, today announced it has entered into an agreement with BT in which BT Radianz services will be used to host and manage Squawker’s technology infrastructure, and provide brokers with access to Squawker, the world’s first toxic-free* electronic trading venue. Members of the BT Radianz Cloud – the world’s largest secure networked financial community – will have easy access to Squawker’s secure, anonymous forum where they can find liquidity and personally interact, negotiate and build on block trades with their trading counterparts.

Robin Farnan, MD BT Radianz Services and BT Unified Trading, BT, comments: “BT is absolutely committed to providing the highest quality of managed services, with all the stability, fault-tolerance, disaster recovery and continuity that is expected and required for today’s trading venues. The BT Radianz Cloud is rapidly becoming the industry standard, linking together the world’s major trading venues and financial institutions, and as such Squawker is an important addition to our cloud community.”

Christopher Gregory, co-founder and CEO, Squawker, comments: “Squawker will provide a new solution to the block trading challenge that the industry has been grappling with for a while. By collaborating with BT, we are able to ensure the highest-quality trading venue for our global clients, with easy access to our services via a proven, trusted and established provider.”

Squawker is currently in its production environment implementation phase and is due to go-live in the first quarter of 2013.